Smoky Trudeau Zeidel is the author of two novels, Redeeming Grace and The Cabin, and two nonfiction books on writing. She is also the author of Observations of an Earth Mage, an enchanting collection of prose, poetry, and photographs celebrating the beauty and splendor of the natural world. All her books are published under the name Smoky Trudeau by Vanilla Heart Publishing.

She also is author of numerous short stories that are available in eBook format, as well as her recent biographical In a Flash, where she recounts the story of how she was struck by lightning and how the experience has affected her life in the more than two decades following the event.

Known to her fans as The Earth Mage, Smoky lives her life honoring Mother Earth through her writing, visual art, and spiritual practice. She lives in California with her husband Scott (a college music professor and classical guitarist), her daughter (a college student and actress), and a menagerie of animals, both domestic and wild, in a ramshackle cottage in the woods overlooking the San Gabriel Valley and Mountains beyond. When she isn't writing, she spends her time hiking in the mountains and deserts, splashing in tidepools, and resisting the urge to speak in haiku.

But perhaps the best way to know Smoky is through her own words:

My friends say I’m the salmon who swims downstream, not up. When the invitation says “black tie,” I’m more likely to show up in tie-dye. If there’s a tree, I’ll climb it. A rock, I’ll scramble up  it. A creek, I’ll splash in it. I love my tattoos; I paint my toenails fire engine red. When our neighborhood coyotes howl, I tend to howl back. I once called a rattlesnake we saw “precious” and named a  tomato horned worm “Spike.”  My husband calls me eccentric. I prefer the term free-spirited.  Or whimsical. Who wants to live a life exactly like everyone else? Not me!